Quvenzhane Wallis confirmed, on the red carpet tonight, that she is the new “Sun’ll come out tomorrow” star of “Annie.”

With Broadway’s funnygirl Kristin Chenoweth anchoring, the ABC “Let’s Treat This as Our Super Bowl” Oscar pre-coverage promised to perk up noticeably this year.

Chenoweth trapped poor Amanda Seyfried in her sights, Joseph Gordon-Levitt endured having his name mispronounced by one of the other divas (Kelly Rowland) with a microphone, Kerry Washington was interviewed by SOMEone who didn’t want to hold the mike in front of the star’s face, and so on.

Trying to play a quiz game with nervous movie stars? Not the best idea they’ve ever had. Deer. Headlights. Seyfried. Hell-0.

Nothing like a little live TV to remind us that being quick and informed and funny off the cuff is hard work. At least Chenoweth rocked.

Channing Tatum, charming, Naomi and Liev, engaging. Hugh Jackman, always “on.” It’s missing the E! snark, but they beat this beast to death more and more each year. To me, it just makes the actual Oscars seem that much longer. And with a shrinking TV audience, “more” is not necessarily better.